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Herschel Data

Major Public Data Release for HerMES:
We in the HerMES team are very pleased to announce our first major data release, DR1.

This release includes Herschel SPIRE sky maps and object catalogues. The maps were made using 250, 350 and 500 µm filters. These sub-milimeter wavelengths had not been significantly exploited before the Herschel Mission. The maps cover ~74 deg^2 of the sky, i.e. a volume of 6.6e8 (Mpc)^3 for z<1.5 (and many of the galaxies that we see are expected to be at z>1.5) q.v. the SDSS which maps a volume of 3.5e8 (Mpc)^3 for z<0.17. We are releasing data in many very well studied extragalactic survey fields and so we expect this will facilitate a huge range of astrophysics and cosmology.

The maps range in depth but are mostly at or below the SPIRE confusion limit and so provide a very high quality view of the sub-millimeter sky, limited primarily by the diameter of the Herschel mirror.

The catalogues extracted from these maps include over 50, 000 catalogue entries, representing over 17, 000 galaxies. Extensive simulations have demonstrated that these catalogues are very high quality and ~90% of the point-like galaxies having very reliable positions and flux measurements.

This data release follows two early data releases (July 2010 and September 2011) which were limited to the brightest catalogued sources over a smaller range of fields.

As of 19th September 2011, HerMES are pleased to announce their second
early data release. This is catalogue data similar in depth to our
early data release but covering additional fields. The data is available through the Herschel database HeDaM